The UpLift Partnership

Catalyzing a Healthier Nova Scotia through a Youth Engaged Health Promoting Schools Approach

Partnership Overview 2019-2024

a panoramic photo of peggy's cove. The rocks are in focus with the ocean to the left and the lighthouse in the distance on the right.

Land Acknowledgment

We are all Treaty people. Nova Scotia is in Mi’kma’ki, the unceded traditional territory of the Mi’kmaq people. Those involved with the UpLift Partnership recognize the Mi’kmaq stewardship of this land and work towards relationships of peace and friendship.

We recognize that African Nova Scotians are a distinct people whose histories, legacies and contributions have enriched this part of Mi’kma’ki known as Nova Scotia for over 400 years.

For six years, the UpLift Partnership brought partners together to collaborate to shift systems for healthy learning environments in Nova Scotia.

UpLift was designed as a School-Community-University partnership to support the health and learning of school-aged children and youth using a Health Promoting Schools (HPS) approach. The work of the UpLift Partnership was funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada with matching funds from private donors raised through a fundraising consortium led by Dalhousie Advancement.

Through our collective actions, we prototyped new ways to engage and support youth to create healthier school environments for long-term impact. With a deep focus on evaluating these methods, we successfully embedding these practices into the health and education system across the province.

A key component of UpLift’s work has been engaging youth to lead the changes that they want to see, supported through the work of Youth Engagement Coordinators and HPS Leads. We listened to the needs of school communities and collaborated with decision makers to shift the systems for more supportive environments.

This has been a partnership across sectors, learning from and alongside students and youth, their teachers, their communities, and building on successful evidence-based methods that create healthy environments for learning and growing.

This is our story.

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Our
approach

Catalyzing Youth Engagement in Health Promoting Schools

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How we’ve
worked together

Our work captured the voices, ideas and insights of students, staff champions in schools, and community leaders.

It was guided by an Advisory Committee and cross-sectoral working groups who led areas of work aligned with our guiding pillars. Bringing together multiple government departments and key players in the health and school systems in Nova Scotia brought a wholistic understanding and opportunity for deeper collective impact.

Based on extensive provincial research, UpLift was designed as a six-year partnership (January 2019 to August 2024) with a knowledge mobilization phase to March 2025. After this time, the structures and practices from this work will be fully embedded into provincial government, health and education structures and systems.

UpLift org chart

Organizational Chart

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Our Partners

Guiding Pillars of Our Work

Partnership & Leadership

Planning & Evaluation

Youth Engagement

School, Community Engagement & Action

Capacity Building

Communication & Knowledge Exchange

The UpLift story

Systems Change through Youth Engagement in HPS

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Trusting the students, that they can do it from beginning to the end, they can be a part of the planning, a part of the building, of the evaluation and they can be a part of the advocacy for larger change. And now, that we can be trusted as well – that they can trust us to fight for them when we think that we can bring about change, and also that we support them when sometimes the frustrations are bigger than us.

Youth Engagement Coordinator

Uplift across
the years

Our Impact

Between 2019-2024, 123 schools completed our Health Promoting Schools Assessment Tool, a survey informed by students to capture their voices regarding the strengths and areas of opportunities within their school environment. This planning tool was used to shape the priorities of the school communities based on their assessment.

What we heard in schools

Students identified strengths and areas of opportunities within the school environment prior to UpLift’s intervention

Strengths

Student Engagement

Students’ voices and positive contributions are acknowledged and applauded.

Community & School Partnerships

Many schools have community partnerships to support physical activity, among other health and well-being initiatives.

School Staff Engagement

N/A

Gaps/Opportunities

Student Engagement

Students are rarely engaged as leaders and decision-makers in:

  • Healthy eating or menu planning.
  • Physical activity/movement.
Community & School Partnerships

Schools rarely partner with the community to support healthy eating (including accessing community resources/services).

There are few opportunities for the school community to learn about benefits of physical activity.

School Staff Engagement

There is a lack of training and resources to educate and empower staff to model and teach healthy eating, including a lack of training regarding the NS School Food and Nutrition Policy and little/low engagement in menu planning.

Many teachers are not provided training or
resources to deliver physically active lessons.

Teachers and school staff are rarely
encouraged to use active travel to/from
school.

163

HPS student action grant projects were completed across the province

176

Schools engaged

53957

Potential students* reached

$

815000

Increased investment of $815,000 in HPS Student Action Grant projects


*Potential reach is defined as the total student population in schools engaged with UpLift.

Where we worked

HPS Student Action Grant Schools

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I think the Youth Engagement Coordinators have a pretty official place within our HPS structure, as connectors between systems…the positions were crucial to connections to on the ground teachers or admin, but also community partners that would work locally with schools, and may partner with individual projects, and with regional staff…the unique aspect that they bring is that on the ground connection.

Key Informant Interview

Outcomes

Increased understanding of HPS

Increased understanding of HPS

Increased knowledge, skills and confidence across the systems to support implementation of a HPS approach and how this approach supports child and youth health, well-being and student achievement.

Strengthened student voice and leadership

Strengthened student voice and leadership

In focus groups, adult champions consistently described how students took leadership roles in the HPS UpLift Student Action Grant project, including making decisions and taking ownership for the work.

Enhanced leadership for YE in HPS at the local level

Enhanced leadership for YE in HPS at the local level

Building student leadership as well as knowledge and skills gained through their engagement with UpLift.

Increased collaboration at the community level to support HPS

Increased collaboration at the community level to support HPS

The HPS UpLift Student Action projects facilitated bringing family and school members into the school and connected the school and community.

Enhanced social and physical environments

Enhanced social and physical environments

Student action projects supported enhancement to the social and physical environments; particularly in the areas of physical activity and mental health.

HPS embedded in school structures and processes

HPS embedded in school structures and processes

UpLift aligned with other work to support student health and well-being and embedded YE in HPS withins school communities.

Reports

Impact Report 2019-2023 5010 KBpdfDownload
Capacity Building Evaluation Report 3145 KBpdfDownload
Partnership and Leadership Evaluation Report 3179 KBpdfDownload
School Community Engagement Evaluation Report 3507 KBpdfDownload
Communication and Knowledge Exchange Evaluation Report 3187 KBpdfDownload
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It’s definitely taught me a lot about leadership and stuff in the community. We plan stuff, and then it actually happens. So, it teaches us that we have a voice.

STUDENT FOCUS GROUP

I would say that we have become much more inclined to communicate with the administration. And now, we can talk individually or as a group with them, whereas before, it’s not really something that was happening.

Student Focus Groups
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We didn’t tend to consult with students and involve them in decisions, to reach out to understand their priorities and interests. I find that now the links between staff and the students are much stronger, and that students are heard and valued. They see that their ideas are put into action.

Staff Champion Focus Groups

We’ve had kids who’ve come into the UpLift program, feeling a lot of hesitancy and maybe not necessarily identifying as a leader, and within the 2 months of actually going through the process and then checking back in with them, even in that short time they’ve totally shifted that mindset and they are seeing themselves as leaders and changemakers within their school – which is huge for such a short period of time.

Youth Engagement Coordinator
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We just decided what we thought we would need, or what we wanted to make the school better. And then, we cut the non-realistic things and some things we were already doing.

Student Focus Groups

It was great to be able to see those kids recognize what our school needed and come up with goals to address those needs.

Staff Champion Focus Group
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The projects involve students all coming together from different backgrounds, cultures, and socioeconomic statuses to all work together for a single goal in the school, to improve the conditions where they learn.

YEC Interviews

And it was really different for me as an educator to really step away from being the voice, to being a back voice or being a fly on the wall, was the best part when the student leaders actually became full leaders in that autonomy that they had. And that’s where that legacy piece is another thing. Those kids are going to move through their school and it’s their school. That’s a really powerful educational experience.

Staff Champion Focus Group
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UpLift has been a great partner with schools here in our province, they’ve given a lot of students and staff the confidence and the competence to make decisions around healthy initiatives. And I just want to thank them for all of their time and effort in changing the landscape here in Nova Scotia.

Health Promoting Schools Lead

A systems
change approach

Essential Ingredients

It’s important to work across sectors and systems, involving all who have a role in supporting student health and well-being. This adds to complexity and takes more time 

  • Sectors and systems have different lived realities, understandings, and priorities
  • Big systems move slowly 
  • Influencing systems change can be subtle and ‘invisible’ making it harder to evaluate and document
  • Inter-sectoral partners on an Advisory Committee guide the work, hold decision making power with an understanding of on the ground realities
  • Clear roles, responsibilities and accountability mechanisms support partners to effectively contribute to the work 
  • Co-chair model between education and public health provides shared responsibility for youth engagement in Health Promoting Schools 
  • Building partnerships at local, regional and provincial levels is required to affect all levels of the system
  • Champions within organizations at the provincial, regional, and school community level advanced the work across each system. They aligned with systemic priorities, identifying opportunities and embedding the work at the right time.

“…It has to be the people within the system. Having the right person in that role is really, really critical. These roles within the system they’re called ‘street-level bureaucrats’ people who can see the bottom and also the top; so, they can go up and down the kind of hierarchy and… broker some of these [changes]. “  – Partner Interview

This is both an outcome and an essential ingredient for success. Capacity, commitment and understanding of meaningful youth engagement practices is required for long-lasting impact.

  • The Youth Engagement Coordinator role and approach enabled youth voice at the center of the work
  • Supports for funding, onboarding, and capacity building to define and integrate the role into systems enables success 
  • In meaningful youth engagement it is critical to engage all students, including those not traditionally engaged 

“We have had this really amazing opportunity for young people to feel engaged… the stories we heard about students who had been disengaged with education, who suddenly decided to come to school because they were involved in these projects, that’s amazing.”

Communication and capacity building initiatives targeted at various partners in the system are critical for building meaningful youth engagement – to build common understanding and goals -and to meet people where they are at. 

Successful capacity and movement building elements: 

  • Community of practice among partners centered on youth engagement for ongoing learning
  • Stories told by students to illustrate meaningful youth engagement 

Demonstrating evidence-based value of youth engagement in HPS:

  • A partnership between academia and community partners is an important connection to disseminate findings and conduct further research
  •  An evaluation framework and robust data collection processes for youth engagement and HPS

Implementing initiatives that introduce a framework, encourage experimentation and create immediate impact. Done in a way that builds long-term skills in youth and changemakers, there are both incremental ways to shift systems and opportunities for embedding new ways of working that create long-term change.

Sustaining momentum

After two decades of research, advocacy, and fundraising, and six years of project implementation, the UpLift Partnership has shifted into a province-wide refresh of the Health Promoting Schools approach.

Through a knowledge mobilization phase from September 2024 to March 2025, we worked to ensure the practices, frameworks, and products of the UpLift Partnership are embedded into the HPS ecosystem to shape the health and learning of children and youth for decades to come. 

Legacy projects include: 

  • Provincial Advisory body to guide Health Promoting Schools
  • 8 Youth Engagement Coordinator Positions across the province
  • A Provincial Program Specialist role to support capacity building and implementation of HPS best practices
  • Evaluation Framework for Health Promoting Schools
  • Educational Leadership Consortium of Nova Scotia (ELCNS), Creating Healthy School Communities Modules
  • Health Promoting Schools Assessment Tool
  • Health Promoting Schools Key Messages and Communications Working Group
  • Building Healthy School Communities through Online Engagement, Online course
  • Project Frameworks, Tools and Resources

A note from the co-leads

The UpLift Partnership has represented a transformational opportunity for one of our most precious assets – the children and youth of Nova Scotia.

The seeds for the UpLift Partnership were first sowed over 15 years ago, when we worked together to engage students as peer mentors to embed heart healthy behaviours in schools. We saw right away the value of youth leadership in sparking positive health behaviours within their school communities, and our research became the blueprint for elevating the health and well-being of children and youth through meaningful student engagement. 

Because of the UpLift Partnership, we have been able to leverage the collective wisdom of so many partners – from across education and health sectors, as well as not-for-profit and private sector partners. And together, we have nurtured something wonderful, something that will continue and, hopefully, bloom and grow for many more years.

We want to thank you all for providing the soil, the sun, the nourishment and the water, for tilling the soil with us, and for sticking around for the bountiful harvest! Thank you most of all for believing in this transformative opportunity and for committing to UpLifting Nova Scotia, for healthier generations.

Sara FL Kirk, PhD

Camille Hancock Friesen, MD